The core paperwork your accountant needs falls into five groups: your identity and UTR details, evidence of every income source, expense records and invoices, bank statements covering the tax year, and last year’s tax return for reference. Exactly what counts as “complete” depends on whether you’re self-employed, a landlord, employed, or holding investments, but HMRC rarely wants original documents at the point of filing.
TL;DR:
- Self-employed and landlord records should be organized by category and tax year, including invoices, bank statements, and expense receipts, to reduce review time and fees.
- Digital records from cloud accounting software are fully acceptable, and retaining documents for at least five years after the relevant deadline is recommended, especially for self-employed and landlords.
- Landlords need rent statements, property sale documents, and repair invoices, with attention to distinguish deductible repairs from capital improvements.
- Bank feeds or secure cloud portals are safer than email attachments for sharing sensitive data, with read-only access and multi-factor authentication enhancing security.
- Rebuilding missing figures from bank or HMRC records is possible but may increase enquiry risk; clearly label estimates and update with actual data when available.
Table of Contents
- What records do I need to give my accountant for my tax return?
- Self-employed records: income, expenses, mileage and accounting method
- What should landlords give their accountant for rental returns?
- Employment, pensions and student loan records to include
- Savings, dividends and capital gains: what evidence counts
- How long should I keep tax records, and does digital count?
- How do I securely give my accountant access to my records?
- What if I’ve lost records or they’re incomplete?
- How I help clients get their records sorted with less stress
- Want help getting your records tax return ready?
- Sources
What records do I need to give my accountant for my tax return?
Before you send anything, sort your paperwork by tax year and by category. It sounds fussy, but it’s the single habit that saves the most time (and the most fee) at review stage.
Start with the basics everyone needs:
- Your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and National Insurance number
- Last year’s Self Assessment return, if you filed one
- P60, P45 or P11D forms covering any employment during the year
- Bank statements for the full tax year (6 April to 5 April), reconciled where possible
- Invoices issued and received, plus receipts for anything you’re claiming as an expense
Once the basics are in, work through the income-specific documents that apply to your situation:
- Self-employment: sales records, expense receipts, mileage logs
- Property income: rent statements, mortgage interest certificates, repair invoices
- Investments: dividend vouchers, interest certificates, broker statements
- Capital gains: purchase and sale contracts, solicitor completion statements
HMRC itself confirms that records supporting your Self Assessment return can be paper or digital, so there’s no requirement to hand over a shoebox of receipts if you’ve already scanned or logged them.
Self-employed records: income, expenses, mileage and accounting method
If you’re a sole trader or contractor, your accountant needs enough detail to work out your trading profit, not just a headline turnover figure. That means invoices raised, receipts kept, and bank statements that show money actually landing and leaving the business account.
Gather these before you get in touch:
- Sales invoices and till or card-payment summaries
- Purchase receipts for stock, tools, subscriptions and other allowable costs
- Mileage logs if you’re claiming the simplified mileage rate rather than actual vehicle costs
- Records supporting business use of home (hours worked, room proportions, utility bills)
- Details of any capital assets bought or sold, such as equipment or a work vehicle
You’ll also need to tell your accountant whether you use the cash basis or traditional accruals accounting, since it changes how income and expenses are timed and can shift your tax bill. LITRG’s guidance on record-keeping for Self Assessment lists exactly this evidence as the standard expectation.
Pro Tip: Export a profit and loss summary and a CSV of transactions from your accounting software before your appointment. It turns a two-hour data-entry job into a ten-minute review, which usually means a smaller fee.
What should landlords give their accountant for rental returns?
Rental income has its own paper trail, separate from anything you’d send for a job or a business. Your accountant needs to see money coming in and money going out, matched to the right property and the right tax year.
- Statements of rent received, or a full agent’s statement if you use a letting agent
- Tenancy agreements and deposit records for each property
- Mortgage interest certificates from your lender
- Solicitor completion statements if you sold a property during the year
- Invoices for repairs, maintenance, insurance and agent fees
One distinction trips up a lot of landlords: a repair (fixing a broken boiler) is usually deductible against rental income, while a capital improvement (replacing a kitchen with something better than before) often isn’t, and needs separate treatment. Keep the invoices split so your accountant doesn’t have to guess.
Employment, pensions and student loan records to include
Your employment paperwork tells the story of income already taxed at source, and it’s often the shortest list on this page.
- P60: shows total pay and tax deducted for the year, issued after 5 April
- P45: issued when you leave a job partway through the year
- P11D: records taxable benefits in kind, such as a company car or private medical cover
- Pension provider annual statements, especially if you’re drawing a pension alongside other income
- SLC (Student Loans Company) statements, if student loan repayments run through Self Assessment rather than payroll alone
Any employer reimbursement that counts as taxable benefit needs the paperwork behind it too, not just a mental note that “the company paid for that.”
Savings, dividends and capital gains: what evidence counts
Interest, dividends and gains all need documentary backup, not estimates from memory.
- Dividend vouchers from companies you hold shares in
- Interest certificates from banks or building societies
- Broker or platform statements showing purchase and sale dates, prices, and fees
- Solicitor completion statements for any property disposal, plus proof of costs like stamp duty or legal fees
If you claim reliefs or report a capital gain, HMRC’s own compliance guidance confirms you need records of purchase and disposal costs and dates to support the calculation. Foreign income needs the same rigour: state the figures in the original currency alongside the sterling conversion you’ve used, and note the exchange rate source.
How long should I keep tax records, and does digital count?
HMRC doesn’t insist on paper. Digital records from cloud accounting software are fully acceptable, and with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax due to apply to qualifying self-employed people and landlords from April 2026, digital is fast becoming the sensible default rather than a nice-to-have.
Retention rule: if you’re self-employed or a landlord, keep business records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. Records for the 2025/26 tax year, for example, should be kept until 31 January 2032. Late returns and limited companies follow different timelines, so check if either applies to you.
Practical tips for staying organised:
- Create one folder per tax year, then subfolders for income, expenses, and capital items
- Name files consistently (date, supplier, amount) so nothing gets lost in a search
- Keep records for the longest period that applies if the same document supports more than one type of tax
How do I securely give my accountant access to my records?
Email attachments are convenient but not the safest way to move bank statements or scanned P60s. A secure client portal or an invite through cloud software such as Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent is a better route, and it keeps everything in one auditable place.
For bank data, read-only feed access is normally all an accountant needs, and it’s a safer choice than sharing full online banking credentials, which you should never do.
- Authorise your accountant as your agent through HMRC online services, using your own Government Gateway login
- Set up a read-only bank feed rather than granting payment authority
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever your accounting software offers it
Pro Tip: If you can’t set up a bank feed, PDF statements with the relevant transactions flagged are a perfectly good substitute. It’s slightly more manual, but it’s still far safer than emailing a scanned bank login.
What if I’ve lost records or they’re incomplete?
Missing paperwork isn’t a dead end. Rebuild figures from bank statements, supplier statements, or HMRC’s own records where possible.
- Label any rebuilt figure clearly as provisional or estimated
- Tell HMRC at filing that estimates were used, and keep notes of how you worked them out
- Update HMRC with actual figures later if they become available
- Poor record-keeping raises enquiry risk, so treat this as a one-off fix, not a habit
How I help clients get their records sorted with less stress
I run a paperless, cloud-first practice, and I’d always rather receive a tidy CSV export or profit and loss summary than a bag of receipts. Organised records mean I spend less time on data entry and more on catching reliefs and planning ahead. As an AAT-licensed practitioner, I work with clients in Kent and remotely across the UK. The same standards apply either way.
— Chris
Want help getting your records tax return ready?
If sorting five years of invoices and bank statements sounds like more admin than you want to take on, I can prepare or review your records and file your Self Assessment return for you. CWABC is the practical alternative to muddling through spreadsheets alone, especially once Making Tax Digital starts changing what “acceptable records” means for sole traders and landlords.
I use secure cloud tools and read-only bank access rather than email attachments, so your information stays protected throughout. Whether you need a one-off tidy-up before a deadline or ongoing bookkeeping support, my Self Assessment and bookkeeping services for Tonbridge and remote clients cover both. Get in touch through my contact page and tell me what you’re working with. I’ll tell you exactly what’s still needed.
Need help?
If you’re unsure which records apply to your circumstances, or you’d rather have someone check your paperwork before you submit, get in touch with CWABC and I’ll talk you through what’s needed for your specific situation.
